Department of Psychology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 97403, USA.
Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, USA.
Atten Percept Psychophys. 2024 Jul;86(5):1594-1608. doi: 10.3758/s13414-023-02803-4. Epub 2023 Oct 23.
In three experiments, we examined the effects of goal-setting on sustained attention and attention lapses. We measured both behavioral task performance and subjective attentional states during a four -choice reaction time task (Experiments 1 and 2 administered online; Experiment 3 conducted in-person). Experiment 1 compared a vague goal versus a specific goal. The specific goal reduced lapses in the form of long response times (RTs) but did not impact task-unrelated thoughts. Experiment 2 expanded on E1 by making the specific goal progressively harder. Behavioral lapses (i.e., long RTs) were reduced in the harder-over-time goal condition compared to the control condition. Additionally, while RTs increased with time-on-task in the control condition, RTs in the harder-over-time goal condition remained stable with time-on-task. Experiment 3 aimed to replicate the results of E2 in-person and adjusted the difficulty of the harder-over-time goals to be slightly harder. The results largely replicated E2. Overall, setting specific and difficult task goals led to a reduction in lapses of attention and increased sustained attention performance.
在三个实验中，我们考察了目标设定对持续注意力和注意力失误的影响。我们在四项选择反应时任务中测量了行为任务表现和主观注意状态（实验 1 和 2 在线进行；实验 3 亲自进行）。实验 1 比较了模糊目标和具体目标。具体目标减少了以长反应时间（RT）形式出现的失误，但并没有影响与任务无关的想法。实验 2 通过使具体目标逐渐变得更难来扩展 E1。与对照条件相比，在随时间推移而变得更难的目标条件下，行为失误（即长 RT）减少了。此外，在对照条件下，随着任务时间的增加 RT 会增加，但在随时间推移而变得更难的目标条件下，RT 保持稳定。实验 3 的目的是在亲自进行中复制 E2 的结果，并调整随时间推移而变得更难的目标的难度，使其稍微难一点。结果在很大程度上复制了 E2。总的来说，设定具体和困难的任务目标会减少注意力失误，提高持续注意力表现。
